


Incidents

by tvrres



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: AU, Angst, Calzona, Domestic Violence, F/F, F/M, If/Then, Multichapter, PTSD, callies scared, owen is triggered, season 8 ep 13
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-14 19:36:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29672241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tvrres/pseuds/tvrres
Summary: based around season 8 ep 13 (if/then)Multichapter (currentlyNOTon hiatis)(the AU episode)Going more in depth to Owens relationship with Callie and what his “incidents” were and how they affected Callie
Relationships: Addison Montgomery/Callie Torres, Arizona Robbins/Callie Torres, Owen Hunt/Callie Torres
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> tw // domestic violence and PTSD in later chapters

“Gosh… He’s so good with the kids.” Addison said softly as Owen walked away, pushing the stroller in front of him, at a steady pace. 

Callie nodded, thoughtfully, as she watched her husband turn the corner, toting her children with him.

“How’s he doing?” Addison asked, turning toward her good friend, her tone filled with worry.

Callie Torres hated when people asked her that, because that would mean she’d have to lie. She’d have to plaster on a smile, nod a few times and play the happy wife. Now, she would have to lie to her best friend, Addison Shepherd. 

“He’s… Better.” Callie nodded, uneasily, worried Addie would see through her act. 

“Yeah… I think we’re past it.” She added, hoping it will really sell the complete bullshit she was spewing. 

“Really?” Addie said, astounded, last she had heard, it was getting bad.

“Yeah…” Callie gritted through her teeth. 

Growing up, Calliope Torres, had always been a terrible liar. She was always very honest and truly despised lying. But it felt like after everything that had happened between her and Owen, lying was now second-nature. 

“That’s great!” Addison reached out and patted Callie on the shoulder which caused Callie to flinch, and all she could do was pray Addison didn’t catch it.

“Mhm” She tried fauxed nonchalance. 

“I’ve just heard it can be… A hard road, coming back.” 

Callie nodded in agreement. _That_ she could agree with. The road was… Rocky. Dangerous. Terrifying. 

“I mean who knows what he went through over there.” Addison continued.

Callie shoved the anger that was slowly building up, down. Who knows what _she_ was going through _here_. But it wasn’t fair, to feel angry, she reminded herself. He was sick. He had PTSD, it wasn’t his fault he had… Incidents. She bluntly nodded toward her red haired friend and murmured something about having a shift covering the ER. 

The day ended too quickly. She hated every tick on the clock that inched closer to “Five PM” because that meant she had to go home. She had to hold hands with _him_ , start up a conversation with _him_ and go home with _him_. 

He rounded the corner, smiling when he saw her, leaned over the counter, looking through the last of the charts before she went home.

He lightly placed his hand on her lower back, making her drop the chart in fear, she tried to play it off by chuckling and wrapping her arms around his neck, and planting a kiss on his cheek. Her stomach churned. He was good during the day. He was _Owen_ during the day. But it felt like the moment the door to their home closed something in him would switch, and every night Callie would spend it trying to just calm him down.

“Hey baby” He murmured against her ear

“Hi sweetie” 

“Are you about ready to head home?” He asked while tucking a loose piece of her hair back behind her ear

“Yeah! Do you mind picking the kids up from the children's center? I need to talk to Dr.Robbins about a patient we have.” Callie didn’t trust him with the kids to be frank, but she knew he’d never hurt a hair on their head at the hospital, in front of his colleague, when he was lucid and not in the middle of an “incident” 

“Of course. Lets meet near the car in say… Twenty minutes? Is that enough time?”

“Yeah, that's perfect.” Callie forced a smile, as he leaned over the counter for one last kiss before making their separate ways.

Truthfully… Callie actually didn’t need to talk to Arizona about their patient. She just wanted a few extra minutes to collect herself and prepare herself for the worst. 

She sank against the wall of an empty hallway, letting her head fall into the palms of her hands and her hair to fall in front of her eyes. 

“Dr.Torres?” Arizona halted her momentum, and opted to crouch next to the woman she had been working with for the past two days.

“Oh… Dr.Robbins.” 

“Are you okay?”

“Hm? Oh yeah… Yeah I’m fine. I always bounce back…” Callies confidence petered out, she wasn’t sure she’d bounce back this time, Owen had been having “incidents” every night for the past eight days. 

“Do you wanna go get a drink from Joes? Maybe we could talk about it?”

“Oh… Really, I would love to but my husband is waiting for me and he’ll kill me if I’m late.” Callie was necessarily joking about the last part.

“Oh- Rain check?” 

“Rain check.” Callie nodded and locked eyes with the blonde, and for the first time in while, she genuinely smiled. 

They looked into each others eyes, Arizona slowly leaned forward. Callies stomach was filled with butterflies and her eyelids fluttered closed as they leaned in together, closer and closer. 

Callies pager buzzed, her eyes snapped back open just as their lips were about to touch. Arizona huffed while Callie glanced at her pager. It was from Owen. Her stomach dropped. She was late. 

“I-I gotta go.” Callie quickly stood up, readjusted her blouse and before Arizona could say anything, Calliope Torres was racing down the halls of Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. 

“I-I’m so sorry I’m late.” Callie panted, out of breath from her sprint through the hospital.

“You said you’d be twenty minutes, it was more like forty.” Owen said hostilely 

“I’m so sorry Owen.” 

Owen looked like he was about to say something, but suddenly, his eyes cleared, he blinked a few times and his complexion returned to its usual color.

“I- I’m sorry. I don’t know what just got over me. Of course it’s fine Cal. You’re a doctor, of course you’ll be a little late to things.” 

Callie knew he had been triggered by something, she listened closely to the sounds around the hospital, when she heard a vacuum about thirteen feet away, making a ruckus. The vacuum had triggered him. 

“It’s okay Owen.” Callie smiled, but it didn’t feel like the way it had felt when she was with Arizona, it felt forced and fake.

They walked through the front doors together, Callie held Allegras hand while Owen pushed their son's stroller.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: domestic violence, choking

Callie was hopeful. Optimistic, that tonight would be different. That tonight Owen wouldn’t have an incident. Despite her ‘glass-half-full’ point of view, she couldn’t help but feel filled with anticipation. Would she have to wear a turtleneck underneath her scrubs again? The seasons were changing in Seattle, the clouds were beginning to clear, the snow was beginning to melt and Calliope didn’t know how much longer she could wear turtlenecks. 

They smiled at one another as they buckled their children into their small red honda. They drove in a comfortable silence, every once in a while one of them bringing up something that happened at work. It felt odd, for Callie to be comforted in her husband's presence. She loved him, truly, she did. She wasn’t the type to marry a man she wasn’t in love with. But she also married a man who didn’t have _incidents._ She married a man who had not yet fought in Iraq. She married a different man, and times like these reminded Calliope of the man she had fallen so deeply in love with. 

But then there was Arizona Robbins. 

A woman. A pediatric surgeon. Someone who had not yet fought in the war and likely wasn’t planning to. She was safe. She was gentle. She was calming and caring. She wasn’t anything like Owen. But morally, Torres had to ask herself, could she leave Owen? After everything they had been through? She had to stay by his side, till death do them part. Could she blame him? Truly, blame him for his incidents? No. But oh how she wanted to, just so she could have a reason to leave him. To run to the arms of safe, gentle, calming and caring, Arizona Robbins. Who, just in the few moments of being in the presence of, had already pulled away at her heartstrings. 

They arrived at their home. It was nestled in between two houses that look similar to theirs. A porch, with a swing that hung to the side. A side garden, with the hose unraveled and thrown about the tulips. A warm, welcoming, yellow light that they had left on, shone, reflecting out the window into their home. It was the epitome of a family-home. Three bedrooms, two bath. Not too small, but certainly not too big. 

“What should we do for dinner?” Callie called out over her shoulder, placing her keys in the dish that stood beside the front door. Bouncing her daughter on her hip. 

“Hm… We could order out? It’s Friday. We could… Maybe watch a movie once the kids are in bed.” Owen said, his tone hushed. Callie knew what “ _a movie when the kids are in bed_ ” entailed, and to be frank, it made her panic. Calliope had been avoiding sex with her own husband for as long as possible. Although he _was_ still her husband. She couldn’t put it off forever. 

So, Callie pushed aside her differences. She smirked sultrily. 

They tucked their sons and daughter in bed, safely away upstairs. 

They sat together, Callie leaned her head onto his shoulder. His hand ran up and down her leg. 

They turned on a movie, what it was, neither could tell you. It was likely a rerun of some cheesy rom-com that played constantly on cable. 

Callie was getting comfortable and it felt strange. It felt strange to not be fearful of what her husband could become as the night staggered on. 

_This wasn’t their usual routine. No, typically they drove him in a tense silence. Both knowing what was to come. They would eat a frozen pizza, perhaps lasagna if either of them had prepped for the week's meals. And alike to their drive, they would eat in silence, listening to their children yammer on about their day at day care. Whilst Callie and Owen would eye each other, never adoringly. Almost loathingly. The kids would watch T.V, maybe play in the living room while Owen and Callie would have a hushed argument in the kitchen, always a knit-picky fight, always forgotten by the end of the night. The kids would go to bed. Something (there was always something) would trigger Owen. It could be Callie closing a drawer too loud. Or the sound of the T.V being turned off. It truly, in the end, didn't matter what it was. But no matter what, Callie would go to bed with a sore throat, that was dawning badges of purple and blue._

She didn’t know what happened next. There was a scene in the movie, probably of the protagonists getting into a helicopter to flee the scene, and fly to Hawaii. What the scene was doesn’t matter. It’s the effect it had on Owen that matters. One moment, they were holding hands, enjoying popcorn, watching two men run around the grounds of a courtyard, trying to catch the main characters and the next he had his hands wrapped around her neck. He was towering over her, pressing her back against the couch. 

This had happened before. Countless times before. But something was different about this. His grip felt tighter. His eyes held… a kind of anger, a fury, Calliope had never seen. His face was glazed over, no emotion was held. As Callies vision blurred and blackened, she weakly hit Owens shoulder, attempting, to get him to snap out of it. But her attempts were futile and as she held onto the thread of consciousness, she managed to gasp out his name.

But she fell unconscious, drifting away from reality. God her head hurt as the flow of blood rushed back to her brain. But by then she had already fallen adrift. 

By the time Owen Hunt had a hold on what he was doing it was too late. His wife was laying, limply, beneath him. 

_”Oh God…”_ Owen whispered. Her eyes were rolled back, and her face was blue. Her neck was already starting to bloom purple and black from where his hands held on to, oh so tightly. Her lips, still gleamed with that clear lip gloss she loved so much.

Owens hands shook, the same hands that had done _this_. He began performing CPR, while the phone rang 911. 

Arizona Robbins' heart raced when she saw Callie get pushed into The Pit on a gurney. But she seemed stable. No gaping wounds. No Third Degree burns. Just… Awful bruising on her neck, and a distressed Owen toted alongside. 

“Owen?” Webber called from behind the crowd of nurses pulling the gurney away from Owens grasp.

“Webber!” Owen sighed, almost relieved to see such a familiar face. 

“What happened to Callie?”

Owen paused, pondering on what to say next. Eventually he would find out. It was obvious what had happened, especially once they change her into a hospital gown, they’ll see signs of his _incidents_. 

“I- Callie and I were watching a movie and something in the movie triggered me and I- Well… Callie calls them incidents. To make me feel better about them. I- Webber… I did that to Callie.” Owen paused, clearing his throat. 

“I choked her.”


End file.
